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Sports Watch
IT'S too bad you can't be in three different places at once. This Saturday is one of those days when I wish it was possible. Multiple personalities
needed SaturdayThat day I'll be covering the MasterCard Championship, the Senior PGA Tour 2000 season opener, at the Hualalai Resort on the Kona Coast.
You know, watching and chatting with Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Hale Irwin, Lee Trevino and the guys.
Tough duty, I know. But somebody's got to do it.
Yet, I wouldn't mind being in Wailuku, Maui, for the Hula Bowl, or even in Mobile, Ala., which I know will be cold, for the Senior Bowl.
I watched the Hula Bowl at Honolulu Stadium and then Aloha Stadium for some 35 years in a row before the game moved to Maui three years ago.
That was when the Senior Tour decided to move its tournament of champions from Puerto Rico to Hualalai.
Priorities, you know. Golf uber alles. But last year's Hula Bowl was really something. It turned out to be a showcase for Heisman Trophy winner Ricky Williams of Texas.
John Jacobs wrapped up his wire-to-wire victory at Hualalai last year at the same time Williams showed what a great player and person he was in starring in the Hula Bowl.
Who knows?
Wisconsin's Ron Dayne, this season's Heisman winner, might deliver the same kind of performance while Watson, Irwin or Bruce Fleisher, the Senior Tour's 1999 player of the year, might be on their way to winning at Hualalai.
Besides, it would be nice to see Hawaii's Dan Robinson, Tony Tuioti, Quincy LeJay and Andy Phillips play one more time locally.
THEN, there's the case of being in the Mobile home of the Senior Bowl to watch Rainbow standouts Kaulana Noa, Jeff Ulbrich and Adrian Klemm. That wouldn't be a bad story to report on either.
They'll be playing for the South team coached by the Kansas City Chiefs' Gunther Cunningham.
Noa and Klemm, the offensive tackles who protected Robinson, will be doing the same for three outstanding QBs on the South roster - Georgia Tech's Joe Hamilton, Tee Martin of Tennessee and Louisiana Tech's Tim Rattay.
Better yet, the three 'Bows will be playing for the "home" team since most of the fans root for the South because of the large number of Alabama and Auburn players on the roster. Besides, the game's in the Deep South, right?
Noa told the Mobile Register that it wasn't a hard decision to play in the Senior Bowl instead of the Hula Bowl back home:
"It was an easy decision," Noa said. "There was no question which game I wanted to play in."
Hula Bowl officials didn't help their cause with Noa when official invitations to the game were sent to the players. Noa said his name was misspelled -- NOAH -- on his invitation.
The Senior Bowl goes on the air at 9:30 a.m. Hawaii time on TBS, while the Hula Bowl starts an hour later on ESPN, leading into the MasterCard Championship from Hualalai.
Having only one VCR at home also complicates matters about which game to tape.
Just say no
I see where Georgia Southern's Paul Johnson, the Division I-AA coach of the year and former UH offensive coordinator here for the Hula Bowl, wants to play the Rainbows.No offense - obviously, not literally - but UH would be crazy to do so. Nothing to gain and everything to lose.
Go Division I-A then maybe. Even then, only maybe.
